Spathe & Spadix
February 8, 2025
In the midst of winter with snow in the forecast one spring flower has already appeared.
Skunk cabbage is the first of the 'spring ephemerals' - woodland wildflowers that take advantage of spring sunlight reaching the forest floor before the trees leaf out. In our local beech forests and hornbeam- oak forests spring geophytes (plants with tubers, bulbs and rhizomes) are especially abundant.
Skunk cabbage is in the arum family; perennials with tubers and flowers on a spadix (a cluster of flowers fused together) often surrounded by a spathe (a modified leaf sheltering the spadix).
Skunk cabbage can bloom through snow and ice because it is one of the few plants capable of thermogenesis heating the inside of the spathe about 20 degrees warmer than the surrounding air temperature.
Skunk cabbage grows in wetlands and is plentiful at the park. I'll check back and report on how they are progressing.
See this observation on iNaturalist
